How unsafe mining is
... Mine Workers, Progressive Mine Workers, and the two associations of big and little operators. Support for the Director branches out to many powerful people, further hampering the efforts of the Mining Board to separate itself from politics. The mining board is also based on appointment by the Governor; nevertheless, the staggered terms of the board members create a board in which only one member can be appointed by the Governor a year. This further exemplifies the power of politics in the Department. Beyond that, there are sixteen state mine inspectors that are also appointed by the Governor on recommendation of the state representatives of each district. The state inspector’s job is to police the mine operators and see that they are complying with state law. All together, the director, the board members, the assistant director, and inspectors are supposed to work as one cohesive unit for the coalmines and miners. Nonetheless, as the facts about the Centralia blast have come about the structure of the unit seems to have very many flaws. This new reform will help mine workers become independent of politicians and politics. The jobs held by the Department and Inspectors need to be separate from bureaucratic pressure. After appointing the new State Mining Board, we will then leave the powers of the Department up to the individuals themselves. Appointment after this will be done by the Mining Board’s Director who was selected by the Mining Board themselves. The State Mining Board will then have discretionary power of all aspects of mine operations in Illinois. This plan alleviates political power within the mining industry which as we have seen by the Blast at Centralia cost our administration dearly. These jobs have to be considered more important by their holders. These men have the capability to change for the better mining operations and the laws and procedures of mining businesses. Although the Illinois coal operators are a considerable source of revenue and jobs in our fair state, the treatment of the workers must be of the highest priority to the very men that were assigned to protect and serve them. Job security in our nation should not depend on public office, job security in America, the land of the free and brave, should be dependent on how well someone excels at their particular job. Woodrow Wilson so vividly portrayed this theory of thought long ago. In his plea for recognizing the central importance of administrative machinery, Wilson called upon administrators to change with time, and that ‘politics and administration should be separate.’ The thought behind this is well beyond his time and I believe transcends time. He was trying to point out that politics does the big task of telling people what to do; whereas, administration finds ways to carry these ideas out. This should fuel the movement away from the highly patronage positions of authority and onward to a system based on merit; especially a well-trained civil service based on merit, rather than politics, to operate a modern democratic government. Wilson would strive to suppress the overwhelming power of the Governor and the appointment powers he has. He would try to make the board members, director and assistant, as well as the inspectors’ work as the cohesive unit that was intended instead of the ‘insensate organism’ it has created. These are just the thoughts of a great man and administrator. While we’re on the topic of great minds, Max Weber would also have a lot to say about this issue. The German social scientist is generally acknowledged to have developed the most comprehensive, classic formulation of the characteristics of bureaucracy. He also had a broad range of knowledge, consisting of historical, economic, political, and social thought. Weber would have explained that the concept of bureaucracy was not working in the case of Centralia and our state of Illinois. He stresses a fixed set of rules, routine functions that become so routine so that everyone in the organization knows exactly what he or she need to do. As an example, the letters sent to the agency by the mineworkers at Centralia were not handled routinely and efficiently. The routine functions and set of rules that the agency was founded on were ignored, which in turn cost the lives of many valuable workers. He also stressed a merit-b...